John Swinney has been urged to roll out compulsory, year-round anti-weapon lessons in schools on the 10th anniversary of Bailey Gwynne’s death after pupil violence has nearly quadrupled in Aberdeen.
At FMQs, shadow justice secretary and North East MSP Liam Kerr warned lessons had not been learned since the killing of the Cults Academy pupil after new figures showed a 282% rise in school violence across the city since before the pandemic.
The figures expose the true crisis plaguing Aberdeen schools, with 1,146 occurrences of violence in 2024/25 compared to 300 in 2018/19.
Police also recorded more than 100 incidents of someone “possessing an item with a blade or a point” in Scottish schools last year.
In Aberdeen, more than 40 weapons have been seized from schools since the beginning of 2024, including knives, BB guns, razor blades and a nitrous oxide cannister.
The harrowing figures mark a decade since Bailey Gwynne was stabbed to death at Cults Academy during his lunch break. His killer, Daniel Stroud, bought a knife from Amazon and brought it to school that day.
It comes as a 14-year-old girl was charged after another girl was injured in an alleged knife attack at Hazlehead Academy in April.
In his question to John Swinney at FMQs, Scottish Conservative North East MSP Liam Kerr asked: “10 years on from Bailey Gwynne’s tragic killing in Aberdeen and promises of action from this government, hard-hitting figures show incidents of pupil violence in Aberdeen schools have quadrupled, while across the city, the number of crimes recorded within schools is rising year-on-year.
“But let members be in no doubt, this is not confined to Aberdeen.
“For years this government has promised but failed to stem the violence in our schools.
“So when will this government start taking real action, such as anti-weapon lessons in classrooms, and finally stop these horrific incidents?”
In his response, John Swinney said: “There is no place for violence in schools in any way shape of form.
“I want to reinforce the importance that the government attaches to education on measures to ensure that pupil behaviour does not resort in the tragedies like the loss of Bailey Gwynne.”
After FMQs, Mr Kerr said: “The Scottish government has failed to address school violence since the tragic killing of Bailey Gwynne 10 years ago.
“Lessons have not been learned, with schools now facing an epidemic of horrifying incidents caused by a weapon-carrying culture among pupils.
“That is why the SNP government must ensure a zero-tolerance approach to violence in our classrooms by rolling out compulsory year-round, anti-weapon lessons in schools across the country.”
